Remember earlier this week when footage was leaked of a 3-year-old girl strutting her stuff for a Toddlers & Tiaras pageant dressed as Julia Roberts from Pretty Woman?

Well little Paisley’s mother, Wendy Dickey wants to tell you there’s nothing wrong with that outfit because it’s no more revealing than a gymnastics suit. Also, she says her daughter was then dressed in the “after outfit,” which makes it OK. The second outfit was edited out of the TLC episode.

Photo credit: TLC

(The “after outfit” is the brown, polka-dotted dress Roberts wears after hooking up with Richard Gere in return for his shopping money, if I remember the movie about a high-class prostitute correctly.)

“I’m raising my child just as well as any mother does … I take my kid to church every week … at least I’m not forcing them into sports and getting my child injured like some parents.” Dickey told TMZ.com. “People need to look at their own family and what they’re doing. I don’t know why people are focusing so much on pageant moms when there’s much more harmful things people are letting their children do!”

Not only does Dickey not see anything wrong with the outfit, she now says she wants to sell it and have the proceeds got to benefit the anti-abortion organization, Georgia Right to Life, according to eonline.com.

Dickey tells the website the outfit was meant to be funny and it worked, with Paisley ending up winning first place.

“”Everyone in the room was laughing hysterically. It was meant to be funny, not sexual at all. I made the dress myself! It barely went above the knee, very nonrevealing and nonsexy,” she said.

She added that if people had seen the “after outfit” they wouldn’t be outraged. Do you agree?

It takes a twisted person to even think about dressing there child as a prostitute from a movie. And then she tries to say she’s a good parent because her daughter isn’t playing sports where she might get hurt? Really?

Um, I don’t agree. She dressed her small children like a regular trashy street hooker and then like a highly paid, cleaned up hooker. In both outfits, her small child is dressed like a hooker. No two ways about it, each outfit on Julia Roberts was in order to hawk her goods- her body. Nothing about that sounds appropriate for a little girl.

Well, if it had been ONLY the “after” outfit, maybe not so much outrage. However, let’s look at the context:

A 3-yr old dresses up as a high-class call girl (i.e. professional SEX WORKER.) And, parades in front of adults, who think this is “cute” and award her a prize.

Outrage? MOST CERTAINLY.

~EdT.

PS: The comparison to gymnastics outfits is totally a red-herring. Gymnastics garb is designed to allow for unimpeded movement. Hooker outfits are designed to appeal to prurient interests. NOT THE SAME THING.

This show is just airing on Sky TV in the UK and I decided to google the show and found this. I am utterly disgused that the parents seem to think it is acceptable to dress their child as a street hooker and a high class hooker and then has the adacity to say that this is morally correct. The thing that really sticks in my throat is that in the next sentence she takes her child to church on sunday and this seems to make things ok. The mothers of these children portrayed in this show are pimping their kids in front of judges and for what? the opportunity to be told your not pretty enough, your personality isn’t good enough or ur “dance routine” isn’t good enough. this is damaging to a young child and its no wonder there are so many screwed up adults in the world! come on people get a grip of yourselves!!!

This show is exploiting little girls. This mom may not see what she’s doing wrong but we as citizens can certainly get through to the network. Please call and write TLC and tell them you don’t want their child smut on the air any more. This show is absolutely harmful to the little girls on the show and all girls in general. Please take a stand since these mothers won’t. TLC says on their website that they are currently casting. I say we flood their casting e-mail (ToddlersTiarasCasting@authentictv.com) and let them know their show exploits young girls and we will not tolerate it any more.

“at least I’m not forcing them into sports and getting my child injured like some parents”

Does that comment worry anyone else? The kid is a preschooler. There aren’t many sports that can cause kids to get injured at that age! Fact. Preschoolers are made of rubber.

Plus, what’s worse for a kid/adult or any age? a) Play a sport and risk an injury or b) be sedentary and have a bad cardiovascular system as a result. Sports may cause injury. Being sedentary may contribute to chronic disease.

Dee, I surely hope you don’t have any daughters. Parents need to exercise good judgment in order to pass that along to their children. The woman who thinks it’s cute that her daughter looks like a prostitute is disgustingly stupid and immoral. Talent shows and beauty pageants for pre-schoolers are stupid enough, but this is downright unbelievable.

If you put a temp tattoo on a 3 year old will she grow up to be covered in tattoos? When you had a candy cigarette as a child did that mean you grew up to be a smoker? When you dressed your child up as a witch for Halloween did she grow up to practice witch craft? When your son played cops a robbers did he grow up to rob banks a shot people? Just saying you might want to stop judging unless you are perfect.

You are right – kids play – they play cops and robbers and school and they dress up for Halloween – all of it play. The difference is they are in these pageants because their parents pressured them to be and pressured them to win! That’s wrong

Anyhoo, no, it doesn’t make it better. I’m not a fan of pageants like this for reasons I have stated many times, but I can tolerate them under some (limited) circumstances. This is not one of those circumstances.

You also know that I fully endorse letting kids be themselves and encouraging them to be comfortable in their own skin and with their bodies. However, as adults, it is our responsibility to not put kids in situations that are too mature for them to understand the meaning of. This 4 year old does not know what a hooker is, does not know what sex is (or at least not what it really MEANS and all the baggage associated with it) and has no business pretending to be a prostitute whether or not her outfits cover more than a gymnastics leotard.

Shame on this mother for a) not knowing the difference, and b) trying to push off the blame on other parents putting their children in sports. Really? Apples to oranges, lady.

As a father who had a daughter in gymnastics I never recall her having an outfit that revealed as much as that little dress. Wendy Dickey may not be forcing her child to play sports but I am sure her daughter did not decide to be in pageants.

To me, there just seems to be something wrong with dressing your 3 year old daughter up to look like a hooker. Now maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am. I was sexually abused as a child & as result of that abuse, I eventually went on to become a prostitute myself. I worked Westheimer & South Main for a couple of years & was a stripper for a couple of years too. Fortunately for me, I was able to turn my life around & move on. I eventually went to college & am currently working on a masters degree. But, I can tell you from that experience that being a prostitute is no laughing matter. Being viewed as nothing more than a sexual outlet for men was dispiriting & sad. There wasn’t anything funny or cute about it. Most of the women I knew in that business had been abused as children much as I had been. They were frequently treated abusively by tricks, boyfriends & pimps. They fell prey to diseases like cervical cancer & HIV. And they drank or drugged to excess in order to blunt the emotional pain in their lives. It just seems to me that any woman who would even think about using their daughter to parody such a life is clueless & on the path to setting their daughter up for abuse later on down the line.

I’m so sorry for your experience. I’m so sorry you had the strength to turn it around. So many don’t, or can’t.

A dear friend of mine let the “secret” of her childhood sexual abuse out one night while very, very drunk. She was beautiful, smart, well-liked, well-employed – and a violent alcoholic whose behavior grew so bad she lost everything – her employability,everything she’d worked for, her friends, family at times, and just recently, her life. At 48, to alcoholism, which caused pancreatitis, cirrhosis, and diabetes.

She never again acknowledged that “secret,” though her behavior was textbook and had been since Jr Hi. She refused any help, though she was fortunate to have knowledgeable and patient friends who tried (and ins.)

Yes, this is a terrible thing to do to small children. But have you taken a look at what is out there for middle schoolers an older children?? All the pot smoking and sex scenes and bloody gore in movies and even on t.v. are DISCUSTING. I don’t have too much hope in the future for our children, unless someone does something to stop all this!!!

Not sure what you mean by “stop all this.” We don’t need to child-proof the world. Parents SHOULD be responsible, but as an adult I should be able to watch and read what I want as long as it doesn’t exploit others.

Some education on many topics that make people uncomfortable is in order.

This is utterly ridiculous!! As if there weren’t enough issues with these “pageant moms” dressing their toddlers as adults. Geeze, it’s ok to dress them up as prostitutes? I find that most of these pageant moms are living vicariously through their children and what their dreams were. The parents are shoving their dreams and desires down their children’s throats. Sad.

Regardless of who wore it portraying what in a movie, I cannot believe any of y’all have a problem with the second outfit. It’s adorable and has a touch of class too. The ones that are really killing me are the ones that say she looks like a prostitute in it. Really? I’ll have to ask what are the distinguishing traits of a prostitute that she is exhibiting in that outfit? Looks like a cute girl in a cute dress to me. Is that what makes a a girl a prostitute these days?

The second outfit was not chosen at random, but BECAUSE of the movie, an godawful fantasy that says “you too might go from hooker to happily-married millionairess if the right gent pulls over.” If it were selected in isolation, diff, story, but it’s the association that is its distinguishing characteristic – hence the controversy and the disgust on the part of many.

I think the brown dress is lovely and, having never seen “Pretty Woman”, I’d never find fault with it (though I guess that people who’ve seen the film would?). The first one, though, is ridiculous. That’s the one that’s easily recognizable because it was plastered all over the place thanks to the movie’s success.

Really, the dresses are beside the point. “Toddlers and Tiaras” is 100% trash television and as they say, “if you lie down with dogs you’re going to get up with fleas”.

I must confess I DO watch this show when I happen to see it on the lineup.
Its so appalling, yet I keep watching this.

These women are living through their daughters, ALL of them, yet they dont see this at all – that’s the facinating part of it. I keep thinking one of them will snap out of their psychotic coma and go “What the hell am I doing spending thousands of dollars we dont have to dress my little angel up as a tartlet?” But they dont.

Only thing close to these women in a total reality void are the poor young souls who, after using up their savings to get to whatever city, is trotted out to audition for American Idol, and getting a huge slap in the face.They can no more sing than me, yet someone told them they could. They look so shocked when everyone tells them NO…

I’ve actually been in contact with the mom via “her daughter’s Facebook page” (leave aside how a 3.5 year old has her own page for now). Don’t think mom is really getting the arguments against her actions. Don’t want to sound too arrogant, but I think that really comes down to denial, greed at the prospect of pageant winnings, and just plain ol’ limited intelligence. She even seems to think she’s deleted me posting the Mom Houston webpage featuring this very article.

But hey, she takes Paisley to church regularly, so it’s all okay, okay?

The fact the mother blurred the line with ‘pretty girl’ and ‘pretty prostitute’ is not at all surprising, really. Dreadful, yes, but not surprising. Here’s what would make a difference – let’s start giving girls trophies and tiaras for being intelligent, for being brave, for being kind, for being artistic … and stop parading them around like show ponies or livestock being sold for breeding qualities. How about that?

“at least I’m not forcing them into sports and getting my child injured like some parents.” So, teaching a little girl to dress like a prostitute isn’t ‘injuring’ her .. nope, not at all… not like that satanic “softball” or the evil “soccer”, right?

I think much more damage is done to kids by parents that allow them to listen to Rap and hip hop type music. In the pageant circuit at least the kids learn how be in front of people and learn the art of self control. Way more effort is required of these kids than any football, basket ball or baseball kids will ever display.